Experiencing perspectives in nursing: An excursion by our Nursing and Healthcare Management students to Charité Berlin

As part of the module “Career Field Orientation”, students from the Nursing and Healthcare Management (B.A.) program took an educational trip to Berlin. The destination was the exhibition “Perspectives on Nursing in Images and Interviews” at the Institute of Clinical Nursing Science at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin.

The exhibition focuses on the question of what professional nursing can achieve – and the role nursing science plays in this context. It was created following an 18-month photographic study of nursing professionals working on different wards at Charité. Photographer Patricia Kühfuss developed the concept in collaboration with Prof. Dr. Jan Kottner and the team at the Institute of Clinical Nursing Science.

The photographs on display provide a diverse insight into everyday nursing practice and demonstrate how varied and highly specialised nursing care can be. From intensive care and oncology to geriatrics and outpatient services, the exhibition makes clear that nursing goes far beyond the often simplified perception of the profession. At its heart is always the individual – combined with professional expertise, complex decision-making and skilled practice.

The photographs are complemented by interviews with professionals from nursing practice and nursing science. Audio recordings provide additional insights where photographs alone reach their limits. They offer an understanding of the considerations, experiences and competencies behind specific nursing situations. At the same time, the exhibition provides an opportunity to explore how findings from nursing science can be applied in the everyday practice of a university hospital.

For the students, the visit offered a valuable opportunity to complement the experiences they had already gained during their own internships with additional perspectives. The diverse fields of work at Charité enabled them to compare these with their previously more limited insights into professional practice. This broadened their understanding of the professional field and encouraged reflection on their own professional approach.

Another key focus was the relationship between nursing practice and nursing science. Particularly in the second semester, the importance of a scientific foundation for hands-on care can still seem somewhat abstract. The exhibition made this connection tangible and demonstrated how scientific approaches can contribute to advancing professional nursing and providing a sound basis for nursing practice.

The field trip therefore directly supported the objectives of the practical module “Career Field Orientation”: It provided new insights into the diverse fields of practice within the healthcare professions, encouraged students to adopt different perspectives, and supported them in further developing their understanding of professional nursing.

The trip to Berlin thus offered not only an exciting insight into nursing at a university hospital, but also an important opportunity to reflect on the question of what constitutes professional nursing and how nursing science can contribute to it.